“It was under a staircase for 50 years. The owner’s family thought it could be worth £5,000. They were told, ’It’s worth more than that…’” The curious tale of Joe Bonamassa’s ‘Royal Albert’ Les Paul – and its mysterious mod

Joe Bonamassa is certainly no stranger to vintage electric guitars, nor is he immune to acquiring highly elusive, long-forgotten instruments that would maybe have otherwise slipped into obscurity in some rather bizarre circumstances.

For example, his high-profile purchase of a neglected 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard that had been gathering dust in the back of a closet made headlines back in 2022.

Now, Bonamassa has further opened up to Guitarist about his newly minted ‘Royal Albert’ Les Paul – which he got his hands on after it had spent five decades sitting unplayed underneath a staircase.

In the latest issue of Guitarist, Bonamassa runs through some choice picks from his wider six-string collection, with one particular Les Paul Standard – which comes fitted with a mysterious, now-defunct mod – standing out among the rest.

“That’s the ‘Royal Albert,’” Bonamassa says when asked about the LP. “That’s the one that Mike Long from ATB Guitars found – it was under a staircase for 50 years.”

Of the guitar’s origin tale, Bonamasa continues, “The story was that the [original owner] saw Cream in 1967, wanted a Les Paul and he found one for sale in the classified section of Melody Maker and bought it for about £50.

“[After he died] his family brought it to Mike, thinking it could be worth as much as £5,000. He was the one to tell them that, ‘No, it’s actually worth more than that...’”

WE DISCOVERED A BURST PT.3 | Backstage at the Royal Albert Hall with Joe Bonamassa | ATB Guitars - YouTube

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“It’s an early 1960, what they call a ‘double-O’ because it still has the fat neck and the long neck tenon, like a ’59, but they were made in 1960 and, generally, in that era you see double whites and zebras [pickup bobbins]. So it makes sense.”

The fact this particular Les Paul was a 1960 example that strayed off the beaten track would have been enough to give this guitar a strong reading on the ‘rare scale’, but what made it even more obscure was a mystery mod that even had Bonamassa slightly bemused.

The additional switch, which had been drilled through and attached to the original pickup, has now been disconnected, but upon closer inspection, Bonamassa believed it to be a toggle to trigger Peter Green-style tones.

“It was probably a phase switch because they ran the wires through the pickup ring into the channel route and then to a volume pot,” he theorizes. “So it was probably just a phase. I don’t think they knew what [a coil-tap] was back then. But it’s the original pickguard, and that switch has been on there for a long time. You can tell that.”

As Bonamassa mentioned, the guitar was discovered by revered vintage dealer ATB Guitars, who, back in 2022, took the guitar to be inspected by Bonamassa backstage at the Royal Albert Hall before a gig. He ended up purchasing the LP for a reported $190,000.

It is worth noting that, at the time of the LP's discovery, it was reported that the guitar had spent 25 years in exile, as opposed to 50. Regardless, the outcome remains the same: it spent a long time out of commission, and is now one of Bonamassa's go-to Les Pauls.

The guitar has since undergone an extensive redesign, too, with Bonamassa swapping out the defunct Bigsby found on the original with a more traditional TOM-style setup, as well as drafting in a new pair of zebra humbuckers.

To pick up the newest issue of Guitarist, which also features interviews with Elliot Easton and Chris Buck, head over to Magazines Direct.